Energy efficiency the next big trend in building construction and renewal

New design methods are revolutionizing industry, even if building will look the same from the outside

Solar-powered heating systems line the roof of Metro Vancouver’s head office in Burnaby. The glass tubes on the roof of this 20-storey commercial highrise building collect solar heat, even during cloudy and rainy days on the rain-drenched southwest coast of British Columbia. Energy performance is becoming a major issue in both new construction and building retrofits.

Photograph by: Arlen Redekop
, Vancouver Sun

If you want a preview of the downtown Vancouver streetscape in 2035, start with a walk down Granville or Georgia Street today.

Most of the buildings you see now will still be standing. There will be additions and replacements, but the majority of the changes that will transform downtown’s living, work and retail space will be undetectable from the sidewalk. That includes upgrades to water and energy systems in buildings that in 2012 are models of inefficiency by contemporary standards, let alone future ones.

“If you are thinking 2035, realistically 80 per cent of the buildings that will be in existence at that time have already been constructed,” Innes Hood, a professional engineer and senior associate with Stantec Consulting, said in an interview.

Stantec is a publicly traded North American consulting firm with a roster of 12,000 planners, architects, engineers, project managers and experts in landscape and environmental science. In B.C., they’ve designed everything from schools and hospitals to homes and arenas, working in teams to break down the boundaries between designers, contractors and investors, and using advanced computer modelling programs.

Retrofits are crucial.

One of Hood’s main assignments is overseeing the redevelopment of existing buildings. More often than not, that means uncovering, through energy audits, glaring examples of waste — air leaks, inadequate insulation, inefficient heating and ventilation systems.

“We are involved in residential projects where we can achieve 80-per-cent reduction in energy use and become essentially greenhouse gas neutral through the implementation of cost-effective technologies,” Hood said. “We’re not having to strive to the leading edge. These are tried and true technologies around good building enclosures and high-performance mechanical systems such as heat pump technology.

“On the commercial side, a lot of the audits we do for energy we’re seeing 30- to 50-per-cent reduction in energy use in ways that are cost-effective. The payback is five to eight years.

“We did a thermal energy study for Vancouver General Hospital about two years ago where we identified about a 35-per-cent reduction (opportunity) in natural gas consumption. At places like UBC, we can achieve essentially a 60- or 70-per-cent reduction if we move away from their old steam systems.”

“If we are trying to achieve carbon neutrality within the next 30 to 50 years, fuel switching from natural gas to electric heat pumps is a significant opportunity that will achieve many benefits in terms of reduced cost, reduced environmental impacts.”

For new buildings, sophisticated computer programs such as ‘energy modelling’ are making it easier to predict how much heat and electricity a structure will require — and to review its performance in the months and years after it is completed. Also, as the number of buildings developed through this technology increases, companies such as Stantec will gain access to an ever-increasing bank of data on energy-efficient design.

The company is also breaking down barriers between the various disciplines involved in creating a building, with the expectation that it will create innovation.

“We work quite a lot internally with our architects and our engineers here in the office,” Emily Dunlop, a landscape architect at Stantec, said. “The question with sustainability is how we can manage human development, urban development, within the natural environment. It’s all about integration.”

Energy performance is a huge issue, said Graham Senft, practice lead for sustainable solutions at Stantec’s Vancouver office.

He said many innovations have come as a result of the adoption by government and industry of LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) green building standards.

LEED may just be the starting point for designing buildings that consume as little energy as possible.

“We are also starting to see in some cases that the owner or the developer ... is actually including in the requirements for the development of a project the (energy) output specifications and the contractual requirements (for) a certain energy performance minimum,” Senft said.

“There’s a threshold that the project team is designing to, independent of LEED certification or building code or what have you. We are starting to see benchmarks established by client groups as well, primarily in the public sector.”

One of the best tools for a successful project is the computer.

“If I was going to look forward 25 or 30 years, I would say BIM (building information modelling) is going to transform this industry dramatically. It is the single most significant change (in building design and construction) literally in thousands of years,” said Stanis Smith, Stantec architect and senior vice-president.

“For thousands of years buildings have been built by taking an idea, reducing it to drawings, and then building from that set of drawings. Now we are talking about a three-dimensional model that simulates the (energy consumption) outcome of the building, from which portions of the building can now be fabricated.”

The best large-scale commercial example of a LEED building in B.C. is the $750-million Telus Garden, the B.C.-based telecom’s new headquarters under construction on Georgia Street. It will have a mix of retail, residential and commercial buildings, gardens and other public space, and Telus is targeting the highest LEED standard, platinum.

“We very early on took an approach that said we would be innovative and that we would demonstrate leadership on an environmental front,” said Andrea Goertz, senior vice-president for strategic initiatives and communications at Telus.

“We are building this block to be iconic, to be relevant not just for our generation today. Twenty, 30 years from now, we want people to be walking by and still remarking on how advanced the building is in terms of its architecture but also in terms of its features and as well the environmental component.”

Story Tools

Solar-powered heating systems line the roof of Metro Vancouver’s head office in Burnaby. The glass tubes on the roof of this 20-storey commercial highrise building collect solar heat, even during cloudy and rainy days on the rain-drenched southwest coast of British Columbia. Energy performance is becoming a major issue in both new construction and building retrofits.

Almost Done!

Postmedia wants to improve your reading experience as well as share the best deals and promotions from our advertisers with you. The information below will be used to optimize the content and make ads across the network more relevant to you. You can always change the information you share with us by editing your profile.

By clicking "Create Account", I hearby grant permission to Postmedia to use my account information to create my account.

I also accept and agree to be bound by Postmedia's Terms and Conditions with respect to my use of the Site and I have read and understand Postmedia's Privacy Statement. I consent to the collection, use, maintenance, and disclosure of my information in accordance with the Postmedia's Privacy Policy.

Postmedia wants to improve your reading experience as well as share the best deals and promotions from our advertisers with you. The information below will be used to optimize the content and make ads across the network more relevant to you. You can always change the information you share with us by editing your profile.

By clicking "Create Account", I hearby grant permission to Postmedia to use my account information to create my account.

I also accept and agree to be bound by Postmedia's Terms and Conditions with respect to my use of the Site and I have read and understand Postmedia's Privacy Statement. I consent to the collection, use, maintenance, and disclosure of my information in accordance with the Postmedia's Privacy Policy.